48 Hours in California

22 Cents Less, my latest “feminist anthem” single and music video was released one week ago (11/11!). I have never felt more passionately and connected to one of my original songs before. Besides being incredibly relevant to today while addressing the serious issue of the wage gap between male and female workers in professional environments, the timing of the release was pretty spot-on. “The music video so eloquently captures the beauty of diversity, the hunger for equality, and the power and courage of women.” Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVDEPNx1iX4

I flew back to California from Boston with my mom and my sister last Sunday (my sister was on the East Coast taking college tours), and arriving in Sacramento at 11am, my mom, my sister and I were able to pull off surprising my dad (he didn’t know I was coming back 🙂 ).

Coming back home after it had been over two months was awesome. And upon arriving at the house, I saw that an article had been published in the Daily Democrat (Woodland Newspaper) with the headline, “Local Davis singer Mina Alali signs with record label” and I was like…”Really?” I LITERALLY DIDN’T EVEN KNOW HAHAH. I was like, “Mom is this true? That’s so cool.” But what a lovely surprise…!! So yeah. (lol)

At 3pm I drove the very familiar 45 minutes to my vocal teacher’s house to record a Christmas song (an original) and create a music video.

It felt so good to come back to the studio, especially after all the hype I felt from completing my second album. Time to get right back to work.

Honestly, one of the highlights of my short 2 days at home was seeing my dogs. That’s probably the one and only thing I can’t stand about college – being pet-less. I came back from the studio around 10pm and fell asleep with my two dogs by my side – I’d say that’s as good of a day as it can get.

The next morning, I woke up quite early to get the house ready and at 10am KCRA 3 (Sac-based TV channel) came to my house. The interviewer, Teo Torres, also interviewed me for Carnival Girl (my original song released in July) during the summer so it was really nice to see and talk to him again.

I didn’t know I would be performing, but I eventually brought out my keyboard to do a candid, casual performance of 22 Cents Less – my cowriter and manager Arlene played the piano and we ended up doing an acoustic version of it as opposed to the original dance-y, upbeat version and it ended up sounding amazing! If I ever perform that song at a concert or venue I would love to do the acoustic version.

Anyways, the segment on KCRA3 is supposed to air this upcoming weekend (November 19/20) but I’ll be uploading the archive to my social media later! 🙂

At 12pm I met with Jeff Hudson, a reporter from the Davis Enterprise in downtown for an interview. Jeff also wrote the article on Carnival Girl over the summer and he was super friendly and made the interview really fun and casual. Not sure when the release of that will be but I’ll let y’all know.

After the interview I got to go to my old high school, DSIS, and visit my favorite people on Earth. I am so proud and happy to be a graduate of that school. The teachers and staff are the most friendly and supportive people ever, and I certainly accredit my being able to work on music consistently during my high school years while pacing myself with schoolwork to them. Stepping onto DSIS campus feels oddly comfortable – like a second home – and very nostalgic.

I was also able to squeeze in meeting with old friends at a sandwich shop for lunch, but around 3pm I felt the ultimate exhaustion of my life so I went home to my beloved dogs and rested until it was time to head back to Boston again. It was a super busy and productive day and a half in California, and I realized that I thrive when I am constantly having to do something – a very fast-paced person. Traveling only makes it more exciting, and if I can get a career that combines lots of work with the ability to travel, I think that would be my ideal job.

I was able to sleep through both flights (I had a layover) back to Boston, and I arrived JUST in time to run to my first class of the day on Tuesday (with my suitcase and everything)! FUN :)))))))))

I want to thank my parents, my manager Arlene, my producer David, Jeff Hudson and Teo Torres for making my 48 hours in California possible and EXCITING AF. Hopefully the future holds more spontaneous trips to the other side of the country, haha.